shane_moore87•6d agoProlific Poster

I’m the only guy who prefers thermal paste over those pre-applied pads

Swapped a CPU cooler on a Dell Optiplex last week and used a pad instead of paste. Idle temps jumped 8 degrees. I learned those pads just don’t spread as well as a pea-sized dot of Arctic MX-4. Anyone else had worse luck with thermal pads on older hardware?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowangonzalez6d ago

Prebuilt OEMs love those pads because they're cheap and easy for the assembly line, but they're garbage for actual heat transfer. Did you clean the old pad residue off completely before slapping the new one on? I've seen people leave that oily film behind and wonder why their temps are terrible. A pea of paste always wins on those older chips with the uneven IHS surfaces anyway.

patricia_rodriguez5d ago

Exactly what rowangonzalez said about the oily film, I heard that's one of the biggest problems with those pads. I read somewhere that the pad's oil can actually leak out over time, making the mess even worse and hurting performance. That's why I always stick with paste on older chips, the uneven surfaces need that thin layer to fill everything in right. Plus, paste is just easier to control how much you're putting on. I'd rather spend two minutes applying paste than deal with a pad that might not even make good contact in the first place.